UAB Faces Memphis for AAC Title, Berth In NCAA Tournament
By Steve Irvine
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - March 16, 2025
His team was run out of the FedExForum by Memphis in the first meeting this season and the opportunity for payback was derailed by a late-game rush at Bartow Arena by PJ Haggerty and the Tigers.
On Saturday night in the press conference room at Dickies Arena, Kennedy was asked if he felt his team was destined to get one final shot at the Tigers this season.
“I don't know about destined,” Kennedy said after his team clinched a berth in the AAC Tournament championship game with a 66-56 win over North Texas. “I felt pretty confident that they were going to get to Sunday. Probably I felt more confident in that than I did in whether or not we were going to get to Sunday.”
As it turned out, both teams did what was necessary to reach Sunday’s championship game, which will tip off at 2:15 p.m. and be televised nationally on ESPN. Memphis grabbed its spot in the title game by holding off Tulane, 78-77, in the first semifinal of the day.
“We worked desperately after the disappointment of losing to Memphis,” Kennedy said of the 88-81 loss at Bartow Arena on March 2. “We then had Senior Night against FAU and it's a good way to kind of (move on), because we knew we had eliminated ourselves from any chance of winning the regular season. Guys were down because that was the expectation. But it was good that was Senior Night because that's a thing that you can flip the script pretty quickly. People are in town, parents, a lot of emotion in a building. We were able to win and East Carolina lost, so therefore, we knew going to New Orleans we were going to be the 3 (seed), which was huge. And just in all honesty, I wanted to be in that 2 or 3 spot so that we could be in this moment. Memphis is without question the best team in this league. They have proven that night-in and night-out. We look forward to the opportunity tomorrow.”
When asked, Yaxel Lendeborg said after Saturday’s win that he was “eager” to play against Memphis on Sunday. He was then asked to explain why he used that word.
“I feel like both games I was a letdown, completely, not just to me, but my parents, of course,” Lendeborg said. “We talk about that game so much because last year David Jones, it was an exciting battle to play against him. And this year, I guess a rivalry started that, you know, shouldn't have started. But I let it get to me, played bad, and tomorrow I'm going to make sure that I won't do that again.”
The rivalry started in the moments following Memphis’ 100-77 win on Jan. 26. In the press conference afterward, Memphis forward Dain Dainja said he’d never heard of Lendeborg, who was the AAC Preseason Player of the Year, before preparation began for that game. Lendeborg countered on social media and it quickly blew up. When the teams played the second time, Lendeborg got into early foul trouble and was largely ineffective after sitting large chunks of time on the bench.
“Yeah, I should have never let that get to me,” Lendeborg said. “I feel like I hold myself to a higher standard than some Twitter beef. That's completely on me. I let it ruin my mental space last game and it bothered me throughout the game. Tomorrow I'm going to go in there clear-minded, clear-spaced, and just remember who I am.”
He’s been spectacular in two tournament games, combining for 53 points, 33 rebounds, 12 assists, seven steals, six blocked shots and no turnovers. His matchups with Dainja will be highlighted, partly because they are two of the best players on the floor and partly because of their earlier social media beef. In two tournament games, Dainja had 41 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
But Sunday’s game is about more than two players. UAB continues to spread out the production around Lendeborg. For Memphis, Haggerty was sensational in Friday’s quarterfinal win over Wichita State. He had 42 points on 16-of-25 shooting from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line. On Saturday, though, he was just 2-of-13 from the field. He did make all 14 of his free throw attempts, many coming late in the game, to finish with 18 points.
Memphis could be without starting point guard Tyrese Hunter, who was on the bench after hurting his foot in the second half of the win over Tulane and was in a boot afterward. Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said afterward that Hunter’s status moving forward was still unclear. But they the Tigers were able to hold on for the win.
“You lose one of your best defenders and your vocal leader, but I knew that we had guys on the bench that could step up and step in,” Hardaway said.
That’s just one of the storylines in a game that could be the last of the season for the Blazers. Memphis enters Sunday’s game with the security of knowing they are a lock to get a NCAA Tournament bid. UAB knows it has to win to get in, like they did in 2022 and 2024. If the Blazers win, the AAC gets a pair of teams in the NCAA Tournament.
“Big stage a lot of people watching -- Carolina, Indiana, Texas, I follow it -- a lot of people will be watching tomorrow, hopefully we can play well,” Kennedy said.